RIP PS Vita: Sony Officially Ends Production

Megalith

Megalith

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Farewell, PlayStation Vita: the handheld’s official product page has announced its two remaining SKUs (the Black PCH-2000 ZA11 and Aqua Blue PCH-2000 ZA23) have sold out, officially marking its demise. Executives have admitted there are no plans for a follow up, which is unsurprising due to the ubiquity of mobile gaming on smartphones. “Sony itself stopped making games for the Vita in 2015, and in 2018 ended the production of physical media games for the device.”

The original PlayStation Vita (PCH-1000) launched in Japan on Dec. 17, 2011, and in North America on Feb. 15, 2012. A revised slimline model (PCH-2000) followed in 2013 and 2014. Though it advanced on the PlayStation Portable’s ideal of bringing console-quality video games, visuals and experiences to a handheld, the PlayStation Vita struggled for attention. Mobile video gaming at the time of its launch was flourishing on smartphones and tablets, making a dedicated gaming handheld more of a niche product than it was in the century’s first decade.
 
I got a good three years out of mine before the games being published stopped interesting me. Stupid ass physical memory format held it back from day one. I never really saw any games that did a good job of leveraging the rear touch panel either. I played way too much Lumnies SuperNova on mine.

Sony is probably right in not following it up with anything. There's room in the market for one mobile gaming platform and today that is the Switch.
 
HeadRusch said:
Goodbye......uh......premiere portable MAME emulator...? Seriously what were people using these things for........emuboxes right....??
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Killzone, CoD, Gravity Rush, Uncharted, Zero Escape, Luminies were all good. then there were some remasters & ports like Assassin's Creed, BioShock, Borderlands, Metal Gear, Ys, Persona that didn't really interest me, but were quite popular. the first gen version with the OLED screen was also surprisingly good for watching movies/tv shows played off of the way too expensive memory cards.
 
I usually don't get rid of hand held systems. Hell I still have a GBA SP boxed away somewhere waiting for when my kid is old enough to play it. When the CFW scene matured for the Vita it breathed new life into it and I now play it on a regular basis. I'm old school and have to have physical buttons.. especially for retro gaming.
 
I liked my Vita overall, but wasn't impressed with the memory card situation...you know, just like EVERYONE else. Traded it in for a Switch since i thought Nintendo was going to do a better job, then i learned that nintendo struggles with online/internet/social aspects & since my last nintendo was the OG NES I don't have a huge nostalgia-boner for their games. Might consider another Vita once custom firmware is finalized, or else look into a GPD Win2 & play the smaller games i already own on Steam.
 
I need to buy a PSP/Vita just so I can have Final Fantasy Tactics at my bedside 24/7....

(seriously, PM me lol)
 
Just last week I powered my Vita up again. It’s a great little system still, I was playing Shovel Knight at work quite happily.

I’ll definitely keep mine around, hopefully with this announcement prices on their absurd memory cards might drop.
 
coynatha said:
Yeah, there's NO market for handheld gaming devices.

*looks at empty Switch dock on 55" OLED*

*looks at empty Switch dock on 42" Sony LCD TV*
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I think the market may only be big enough for one at this point. Switch did an excellent job with the dock system as it can fill both niches. Plus, Nintendo games. A docked "PSP 3" would simply be an inferior PS4/5 because you already get Sony games on the home consoles. Phones/tablets cover the cheap market (young kids, average people) for mobile games these days while the Switch caters to traditional gamers.

The graphics on the Switch are greatly inferior to home consoles or a PC, but still, the graphics are converging. The 2D top down games that made the Gameboy so iconic like Pokemon are now full 3D games. So the difference between say, Last of Us home console vs mobile console wouldn't be too big. And Sony tends to do story based SP games which aren't something you want to play on your commute or for 40-50 minutes here or there in public. Games like Mario translate better to the mobile demographic.
 
Nolan7689 said:
Just last week I powered my Vita up again. It’s a great little system still, I was playing Shovel Knight at work quite happily.

I’ll definitely keep mine around, hopefully with this announcement prices on their absurd memory cards might drop.
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Or they'll dry up entirely & the stupid-crazy prices for 64gb sony cards will get even more insane.
 
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